Research Software Engineer

Cycling in Schleswig-Holstein

This was the first bike trip in 2018. It was a small one but a good one to start the season. This time, I biked together with my friend Elena, who did her first bike tour over few days. It was a longer weekend in Germany and the perfect opportunity to bike. We chose to explore the region of Schleswig-Holstein in the north of Germany. It is generaly flat and the bike infrastracture is good. We met in Flensburg, a city on the border with Denmark, and the goal was to reach Lübeck on the fouth day. On average, we planned 40 km per day. The route that we planned is shown on the map.

Although we planned 4 days of biking with distance of around 160 km, we did not bike the last day from Plön to Lübeck, becasue the wather was very bed (extreme wind and temperature of 5 degrees, including some rain). Instead, we took the train and spent few walking hours in Lübeck for sightseeing. Here are the key facts

Day 1: Flensburg to Ulsnis

I started the trip one day earlier by taking the train from Paderborn to Flensburg. I arrived at midnight and went to the Flensburg Hostel.

In the morning, I met Elena at the train station and we went to the city to explore the main street and the port. The city is very small. Here are few photos.

Around mid-day, we started our biking to Ulsnis. The weather was cloudy and a bit rainy in the beginning. But later it bacame nice and sunny. The way was most of the time next to the street on the bike path. We did one break in Satrup with coffee and some snacks. Around 4 pm we arrived in Ulsnis where we stayed at Johanna and Richard’s 200 years old house. This was my first Warmshowers experience as a guest. And it was extremely positive. Johanna and Richard provided us with a bed and plenty of food. Their house was also nice experience. Everything was antique and well arranged. We had nice chats and they showed us the church where their village community gathers. Ulsnis is quite rural but it has very nice nature around. It is located next to the Schlei Fjord.

Day 2: Ulsnis to Kiel

The next morning, we had a nice breakfast and were ready to go, when we realized that the front wheel of Elena’s bike lost the air. So we had to change the tire. I had some tools with me, but I forgot my travel pump in Paderborn. Luckily, Richard had one and he also helped with some better tools. Then, we started the biking. Initially, we plannned around 50 km this day which was the record for Elena, but at the end we did almost 60 km becasue we missed the way at some point. At Brodersby we took the ferry to cross the Fjord, for which we had to pay few euros. There is also a bridge north of Ulsnis, but we wanted the shorter way. Our break was in Eckernförde, which is a nice touristic town at the Ostsee (East sea). We walked in the town and had a nice coffee at the beach.

After Eckernförde, we followed the bike way next to the Ostsee which was very nice. Then, there was a point where we decided to take the direct way to Kiel and not to go along the Ostsee becasue it was 10 km longer. We were also told later that that way is not that beautiful and the sea is not really visible along the way for most of the time. So, we took a really nice direct bike way to Kiel. But at some point we realized that we went off from the official bike way and we end up in Holtsee. The whole way was actually really nice on small roads around the fields and some woods with very few cars. From Holtsee we decided to get somehow to the artificial canal that connects the Ostsee and Nordsee and is the busiest one in the world. We reached Landwehr and crossed the canal with the free ferry.The canal was huge. The weather became cloudy and colder. Even though it was Sunday when the canal is less busy, we still saw few big boats. We followed the canal on the south side until Sushdorf. From there we entered Kiel.

In Kiel, we arrived around 4:30 pm. We wend directly to a sport bar and watched the second quarter final handball game between Vardar and Kiel. They played in Skopje. Vardar lost but still qualifed to the final 4 becasue of the first game. It was a nice feeling to support Vardar against Kiel in Kiel 🙂

After the game, we went to our hosts Gini and Flo from Warmshowers. It was another nice Warmshowers experience. They gave us some nice biking tips for the region.

Day 3: Kiel to Plön

As our Warmshowers host recommended, we wend first in the center of Kiel to explore the city. From the main train station which is at the port, we took the boat until Mönkeberg. The idea was to see Kiel from the wather. And it was worth it! With that we also avoided biking through the city as it is a bigger city and more difficult to orient. So, we started our biking from Mönkeberg. From there we headed south to reach the river Schwentine. We found the nice bike way along the river which we followed until Raisdorf. It was very nice way!

At Raisdorf, we took the bike way next to the bigger road until Preetz. We had our break in Preetz, which is a nice little town. From there, we took the dirrect way to Rathjensdorf. The road was through the fields and quite rural. It was also quite hilly. In Rathjensdorf, we found our guest house that we booked via Airbnb. But nobody was there. We tried to call the owner but no answer. Then we asked the neighbour who told us that they usually open from 5 pm. So, we went to Plön. We walked and had nice food. Here is one view on the main street in Plön.

Later, we returned to Rathjensdorf and were able to check-in in the house.

Day 4: Plön to Lübeck

The last day, we only biked from Rathjensdorf to Plön (4 km). The weather was really bad so we decided to take the train to Lübeck.
You can check more photos from this trip on my Instagram.